Why previews matter
Your title and description are the ad for your page in the search results. If the best part is cut off, or the text is vague, people scroll past. Previewing them takes a minute and can lift your click-through rate.
Characters vs pixels
Google truncates by width, not by count. A title full of capital "W" and "M" letters runs out of space sooner than one with narrow letters like "i" and "l". This tool measures the real width of your text using the same font style Google uses, so what you see is a close match.
Writing a better title
- Put the main keyword near the start so it is never cut.
- Make it specific and honest, and add a benefit or number where it fits.
- Keep branding short and at the end.
- Give every page a unique title.
Writing a better description
- Summarise what the visitor gets and why it is worth clicking.
- Include the keyword naturally. Searchers see it in bold.
- End with a gentle call to action.
Part of a bigger checklist
Titles and descriptions are one piece of technical SEO. Work through our technical SEO checklist, read Next.js SEO best practices if you build with Next.js, and generate the tags with the meta tag generator. See also how AI Overviews change click behaviour.